Lessons about important things in schools, military matinees in kindergartens, a university course “Fundamentals of Russian Statehood” – looking at all this, many wonder how much influence propaganda has on children? Or maybe it doesn’t have any effect at all – look, in the USSR propaganda was everywhere, and nothing, they grew up normal?
Today we have enough scientific evidence to answer these questions fairly confidently.
Although I’m afraid you won’t like the answers.
| 00:00 – hello! 13:00 – anchoring effect 16:22 – distortion of knowledge in hindsight (aka distortion “I knew it!”) 21:30 – fundamental attribution error 26:13 – priming effect 35:38 – effect of illusory truth 43:10 – availability heuristic 50:41 – many distortions at once determine the selectivity of perception 52:45 – distortion of pleasant information 55:36 – peak and end distortion 58:40 – action preference 58:45 – underestimation of inaction 1:03:50 – revaluation of what already belongs to us 1:04:25 – desire to reduce low risks 1:04:25 – optimism distortion 1:05:12 – faith in the justice of the world 1:08:45 – tendency towards black and white thinking 1:39:32 – distortion of lack of empathy (inability to predict one’s emotional state) | 00:00 – привет! 13:00 – эффект привязки 16:22 – искажение знания задним числом (оно же искажение «Я так и знал!») 21:30 – фундаментальная ошибка атрибуции 26:13 – эффект прайминга 35:38 – эффект иллюзорной правды 43:10 – эвристика доступности 50:41 – сразу много искажений определяют избирательность восприятия 52:45 – искажение приятной информации 55:36 – искажение пика и конца 58:40 – предпочтение действия 58:45 – недооценка бездействия 1:03:50 – переоценка того, что уже принадлежит нам 1:04:25 – стремление уменьшать низкие риски 1:04:25 – искажение оптимизма 1:05:12 – вера в справедливость мира 1:08:45 – склонность к черно-белому мышлению 1:39:32 – искажение отсутствия эмпатии (неумение предсказывать свое эмоциональное состояние) |
Introduction – Biological Development
Situations with an unclear overall picture, but in which we have to decide quickly.
It evolved biologically and was successful, otherwise we wouldn’t be here.
Why is it no longer helpful? Now that we know much more and have a more complete picture of complex reality.
Because development was so rapid that we couldn’t change biologically – we are still at the Stone Age level. Just like in the picture.
Now, however, there are people who use these mechanisms – companies and propagandists – where we make quick decisions based on an unclear overall picture, where we would do much better if we used our ratio more.
Error list
anchoring effect
had planned 5 mechanisms, but now 10-12.
had planned 20 mechanisms, but now 10-12 (frustration, disappointment)
Reference point influences our evaluation
hindsight bias
Looking back I have the impression that what happens now was easy to see then.
So easy to predict.
In fact this is not true, it is a distortion.
Danger is that we make decisions now, based on the false assumption that we have the ability to predict the future much better than we actually can.
This bias feels good, because we feel uncomfortable when we realize the future is uncertain and we feel comfortable if we feel we now what the future brings. We feel safer.
fundamental attribution error
When they made a mistake, it is because they are stupid.
When we made a mistake, it is because external conditions led to this
Fidel Castro experiments – 1967 – Edward Jones, Victor Harris
group had to decide positive negative attitude of essays on Castro
disregarded the information that people were forced
(more actual situation – those who left Russia tend to blame those who stayed for not going out and demonstrate, even knowing they face real negative consequences)
So this “thought” can be labelled as “fundamental attritubion error”
priming effect
The priming effect occurs when an individual’s exposure to a certain stimulus subconsciously influences his or her response to a subsequent stimulus. These stimuli are often related to words or images that people see in their day-to-day lives.
John A. Bargh (born 1955) is a social psychologist currently working at Yale University, where he has formed the Automaticity in Cognition, Motivation, and Evaluation (ACME) Laboratory. Bargh’s work focuses on automaticity and unconscious processing as a method to better understand social behavior, as well as philosophical topics such as free will. Much of Bargh’s work investigates whether behaviors thought to be under volitional control may result from automatic interpretations of and reactions to external stimuli, such as words.
effect of illusory truth
the more often we hear something, the more true it seems – even if it is total nonsense
walked 100x along a bush, not tiger – it means it is safe
if you hear 100x times a nation is an enemy, it becomes true
national and other stereotypes – it does not occur to you to check if it is true
if you stop and think about it for a moment, you ll find 1000s of things that you think are true, because you heard this many times
Vitamin C helps with colds – drafts bring a cold
you cannot sit on a cold stone – fresh juice is good – brush teeth twice a day – bananas grow on palms
all of those are not true … but we have heard them since childhood
What needs are fulfilled? Helps us to make picture of world fast – because with complete world you are able to orient yourself, to foresee what is going on, and be able to act.
If you are not seeing the picture of the world, uncomfortable
Why is it harmful? You can be with a picture of the world perpendicular to reality.
It is easy to effect people on this, because it does not work on level of rational thinking but on the biological level
This is what propagandists use – they repeat stuff 100x over – people who are not interested in politics and do not want to dig in deeper, will just believe it to be the truth
heuristic availability
“the first thing that comes to my mind must be true”
this mechanism works automatically – so in many cases the first association we have with someone is based on some prior judgments about a group of people, and so when we meet a new person, this can influence our judgment and the decision we make. If we are unaware of this, the first-come-first-serve bias can have a lot of influence based on a wrong perception of the world.
It is easer to succumb to this mode, because to think – we do not love to do it, it’s one of our characteristics – cost energy and is hard to do.
So more often than not we operate on the basis of wrong perceptions, than on carefully thought through picture of our environment.
What comes to mind is not what is more true, but what is simpler.
Experiment – words with a k in beginning o words with k on place three – which are more?
We can remember more that begin with k – so we conclude – there must be more.
(priming and heuristic availability together with effect of illusory thruth work together)
together create a distorted view of the world
can be used by a government, providing some simple but false answers, to create a false reality, that then determines our actions.
Now follow a couple of smaller effects – still we will mention them
many distortions at once determine the selectivity of perception
once we have a distorted view of reality, we tend to take in smaller supportive stories for this reality with great ease – and we tend to refuse bits that are not in accordance with this
that means the longer we are exposed to wrong view of reality, the harder it will get to get us out from there, because all of the smaller supporting bits surround it over time
distortion of pleasant information
taking in with more easy information that is comfortable for us
pride for our country, for ourselves – story of the fox – info that makes us or our group better
is much more readily accepted
On the contrary messages like “How can you even believe this nonsense” which makes us look like a fool – for example in families – lead to an immediate shutdown of perception, because you do not like to be seen as a fool
also – cherry picking – we take what we like most out of a collection of possible infos
peak and end distortion
distortion in our perception of our own subjective experiences
in an experience we tend to look through the entire experience – a vacation for example, taking part in a war for example – through the peak moment and through the end of it all. The whole experience is distorted according to how the experience in the peak and end moments are. Ending a terrible war with a victory or having a heroic moment in the whole thing, tilts the appraisal of the whole thing to good or bad
action preference
often an action is prefered when it makes the situation worse or results worse
goalkeeper jumping around or going by default into one corner – honking in a traffic jam – giving sanctions to Russia – just in order to do sth – even when it works not at all
underestimation of inaction
situation where both action and inaction both seem to lead to bad results
we can sometimes chose inaction, because then at least we are not guilty by acting ourselves
in the covid situation that increased by much the danger of harming ourselves
revaluation of what already belongs to us
we tend to overvalue what belongs to us
we can stay in horrible situation, just because we fear of losing what we already have
desire to reduce low risks
aerophobe takes car, increasing risk … but for them it seems like less risky
optimism distortion
jews in germany stayed even after crystal night – optimism – nothing bad will happen to us – a mistake, based on optimism distortion
faith in the justice of the world
can also be very harmful – taking the thing from the world of novels and films into our real life …
tendency towards black and white thinking
bias that there can be only one or the other outcome
for example working on this hardware wrong wiring of ours is possible, but not all the time, so we do not do it at all.
distortion of lack of empathy (inability to predict one’s emotional state)
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